Shift in tourism spending patterns raises urgency for value-focused strategy

28 November 2025 12:30 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 4 Bookmark

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Sri Lanka’s tourism has found that those who visit Sri Lanka aren’t spending as they used to, causing the country to undershoot what it expects to earn from the trade.

The Central Bank this week disclosed that the change in methodology by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) from August this year has found that an average per day spend by a tourist has been just US US$ 148, down from US$ 171 before.

There were concerns lately that despite the increase in arrivals, the total earnings from tourism hasn’t budged much questioning on the validity of the method used by the SLTDA to measure the spending by a departing tourist.

For instance, in October Sri Lanka earned US$ 186.1 million from tourism, only tad changed from US$ 185.6 million in the same month in 2024 despite the arrivals rising to 165,193 from 135,907.

Hence the Central Bank said despite the higher arrivals, Sri Lanka is going to end up with earnings lower than that of 2018 levels – the last time the country had the highest earnings from the trade – and could end up somewhere close to what the country earned in 2024.

In this backdrop, SLTDA appears to have gotten the message loud and clear, forcing them to change their focus from volume to value as Sri Lanka appears to be getting a lot of the backpacker category and also the ones from Asia who may sometimes be unwilling to spend that much and also stay only for shorter periods.

Meanwhile, the outgoing President of The Hotel Association of Sri Lanka, M. Shanthikumar called at this week’s 60th anniversary for strong global promotion and clear regulations for the sector for its sustained growth.

The so-called nation building and global destination marketing campaign has been delayed for a very long time and it now appears a non-starter.

The government targets US$ 8.0 billion earnings by 2030 from four million arrivals.

Comments - 4

Che Friday, 28 November 2025 10:31 PM

Perhaps due to depreciation of the LKR , Tourist

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FredSnR Sunday, 30 November 2025 02:40 AM

You have identified the problem(quality not numbers) now do something about iimmediately.The next year should be the target for improvement(high end)

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M Herath Sunday, 30 November 2025 02:58 PM

$148 per day is a huge amount for tourists to spend in one day in Lanka....Why is that an issue? The government should focus on undeclared earnings from businesses and tax evasion. Perhaps more people would come to Lanka if airfares were lowered to the country too.

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M Fernando Sunday, 30 November 2025 08:39 PM

When so-called "tourists" are running businesses, taking over whole communities, repatriating their earnings AND being given official police protection by the government, what else is to be expected ???

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